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OPEN LETTER
TO BET REFERENCE: YOUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH LOGO |
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Who’s colors are you flying BET (Black Entertainment Television)? Not the colors of The Black Nation, that’s for sure. The correct sequence of the colors of The Black Nation are Red, Black and Green, not Red, Green and Black. For those not familiar with this topic, I refer to the nice little logo BET is using for Black History Month. Turn on BET and look at the bottom right corner of your TV and you will see the logo I am referring to. You should take a good look at it. It’s cute, I will give it that. But it is incorrect. While I like the Black Star and acknowledge, as a Garveyite and a proud member of the U.N.I.A. - A.C.L. (The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League), it is symbolic and correct, I have issues with the sequence of the colors following it. The correct sequence of the colors of The Black Nation are Red, Black and Green. However BET is flying Red, Green and Black. Since I am not able to find a copy of it on line, look at this picture and imagine the Black Star as it appears with the B in Red, the E in Green, and the T in Black on a clear background without the dot com ending. Didn’t some one on the staff inform you that the sequence of colors were incorrect? If they did and you outvoted or ignored them, you made a mistake. If no one informed you, then your research staff is woefully incompetent. According to
The U.N.I.A.- A.C.L.
whose founder, The Honorable Marcus M. Garvey, defined the significance of
the sequence of the Colors; "The race catechism Garveyites used explained the significance of the red, black, and green as for the "color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty", black for "the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong," and green for "the luxuriant vegetation of our Motherland." Source; http://www.unia-acl.org/history/flagstor.htm
Many will say, "they had good intentions". While that may be true, when you raise the flag of a Nation you show respect or honor that nation. Do you think for one minute Israel's colors would be flown out of sequence? Not no, but Hell no! Shall we get deep for a moment and say this is another example of that BET never was and will never be about The Black Nation. Sure, why not? It IS another sign, is it not? How many times in how many ways can we (the activist community) say it? No doubt some one will say, 'Oh Tyree you are reaching with this, jeez it's just a sign or Logo." Ok. let's go with Logo for a minute. According to Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary: Logo - Short for Logogram N. A symbol of letter representing an entire word as ¢ for cents or £ for pounds. If BET stands for Black Entertainment Television, as it does, and they wish to display the colors of the Black Nation, one would think the colors would be in the correct sequence since the programming is supposedly geared for The Black Nation. This is not the case. In my mind, to raise a flag or display the colors of a nation an incorrect sequence, is blatant disrespect. With all of that said, I again ask, BET, who's colors are you flying? During the 911 tragedy, the Red, White and Blue were never altered, confused, turned backwards nor upside down. No one attempted to make it, in any fashion, other than it's intention. No one even thought to do so. So why is it the colors of The Black Nation can be altered or played with? Are we of that little consequence that it is of little or no consequence to display our colors in the correct sequence? Who's colors are you flying?
~~~~~~~ Update: BET CHANGES BLACK HISTORY MONTH LOGO Note: It has come to my attention (thanks for the call Lil brother) that BET has changed the logo so that it is now in proper sequence. Could it have been the e-mails of this article that I sent to BET inc, Essence, The Black World Today, Brother Aaron McGruder, and Black Voices? I wonder if it could have been the e-mails I sent to various activist list? Or was it that I am not the only one who noticed it and said something out loud about it? Or, could The Honorable Marcus M. Garvey have made his presence known? Or did ALLAH say "CHANGE THAT NOW!" in someone's ear? Whomever did whatever, I thank you from the bottom of my Pan-African heart. BET, obviously you need help. Tyree 2/13/2002 |
2/10/2002